Tag Archives: ADF: Brett Harvey

Alliance Defending Freedom: It is ironic. No, not it the sense made famous by Alanis Morissette (it turns out that rain on your wedding day is purely a coincidence, not irony). But it is ironic when a business asserts the very right they refuse to support.

One News Now: Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Brett Harvey says the Illinois Supreme Court, by rejecting the psychological connection argument, “acknowledged the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that fit parents have the right to raise their children.”

Alliance Defending Freedom: One of the saddest realizations that can come to anyone studying the news – locally, nationally, globally – is how endlessly, indefatigably, so many forces are working to negate and erode the value of human life.

ADF Media: The Canadian Supreme Court struck down total prohibitions on doctor-prescribed death Friday but said that Parliament may only allow a “stringently limited, carefully monitored system of exceptions” and affirmed that physicians cannot be forced to participate in killing someone because patients do not have a “right to death.” Canada’s existing laws will remain in place for another year.

Daily Caller: “The constitutionally protected freedom of people to express their views in public areas has been an essential part of American life since the nation’s founding,” said senior counsel Brett Harvey of Alliance Defending Freedom, the group that defended The King’s Men, in a press release. “We are very pleased that this ministry can continue its work and advance its values without the threat of baseless litigation.”

Charisma News: “The constitutionally protected freedom of people to express their views in public areas has been an essential part of American life since the nation’s founding,” added Senior Counsel Brett Harvey of ADF, which provided funding for defense of The King’s Men. “We are very pleased that this ministry can continue its work and advance its values without the threat of baseless litigation.”

The Global Dispatch: “The constitutionally protected freedom of people to express their views in public areas has been an essential part of American life since the nation’s founding,” added Senior Counsel Brett Harvey of ADF, which provided funding for defense of The King’s Men. “We are very pleased that this ministry can continue its work and advance its values without the threat of baseless litigation.”

The Christian Post: “The Supreme Court affirmed the freedom of Americans to pray according to their consciences before public meetings,” Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Brett Harvey said in a press release. “For that reason, the district court was right to lift its previous order against Forsyth County’s prayer policy.”

Daily Caller: “The Supreme Court affirmed the freedom of Americans to pray according to their consciences before public meetings,” ADF Senior Counsel Brett Harvey said in a press release. “For that reason, the district court was right to lift its previous order against Forsyth County’s prayer policy, which is clearly constitutional.”

Winston-Salem Journal: Brett Harvey, attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, which assisted Forsyth County, argued the county’s policy is inclusive and that the county is not required to reach out to every possible religious organization. He also said that nonbelievers are not excluded from the policy. He also argued that the injunction was specifically to prohibit the county from allowing sectarian prayer.

The Blaze: “All Americans should have the liberty to pray without being censored, just as the Supreme Court found only a few months ago, and we are delighted to see this freedom restored in Forsyth County,” attorney Brett Harvey said in a statement. “The Supreme Court affirmed the freedom of Americans to pray according to their consciences before public meetings.”

WUNC: Brett Harvey of the Alliance Defending Freedom will argue the case on behalf of Forsyth County. He says their prayer policy is already inclusive. Harvey wants the injunction lifted without requiring policy changes.

ADF Media: Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Brett Harvey will be available for media interviews following a hearing Thursday over whether a federal district court should lift its order against the prayer policy of Forsyth County, N.C., in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision affirming prayer before public meetings in Town of Greece v. Galloway.

Opposing Views: “Simply hearing another pray burdens no one,” Brett Harvey, of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian law firm, told Campus Reform. “Limiting the way a person is able to pray suppresses religious freedom. True freedom permits a prayer giver to choose for themselves how to pray, while permitting those to hear it the liberty to agree, disagree, or disregard.”

Campus Reform: “Simply hearing another pray, burdens no one,” Brett Harvey from the Alliance Defending Freedom told Campus Reform.”Limiting the way a person is able to pray suppresses religious freedom. True freedom permits a prayer giver to choose for themselves how to pray, while permitting those to hear it the liberty to agree, disagree, or disregard.”

My Fox 8 (Winston-Salem Journal): Brett Harvey, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, said it is not surprising that the court set a hearing, and he said he thinks it indicates that the judge is interested in hearing more fully how the recent ruling affects his court order.

Tri-City Herald: “I suspect there’d be some legal difficulties in dictating who someone prays to,” said Brett Harvey, senior counsel for Alliance for Defending Freedom, a nonprofit that advocates for religion in government.

Raw Story: Even Brett Harvey, senior counsel for Alliance for Defending Freedom, a group that advocates for a greater religious presence in government, said that Trumbo’s interpretation of the decision was unsound. “I suspect there’d be some legal difficulties in deciding who someone prays to,” he toldThe Herald.

Winston-Salem Journal: The parties are now waiting for U.S. District Court Judge James A. Beaty Jr. to act. He could make a determination based on the briefs or could schedule a hearing, said Brett Harvey, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom. “What happens next is in the hands of the judge,” Harvey said.

Democrat & Chronicle: The rules mirror a model policy from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal organization that represented the town in the Supreme Court case. Brett Harvey, the group’s senior counsel, said allowing anyone to speak “made sense when the town had a manageable number of people making a request.” Now Greece needed a neutral way to select speakers, he said.

Winston-Salem Journal: Brett Harvey, senior counsel with the Alliance, said Tuesday that counsel would file a reply in the next few weeks. He said courts had already recognized that the county’s policy was inclusive, and that it was the content of the prayers that they had found problematic.

Alliance Defending Freedom, Bioethics Defense Fund, and Life Legal Defense Foundation filed a friend-of-the-court brief Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit that argues a defamation lawsuit against Susan B. Anthony List is baseless because the pro-life group only told the truth.

WORLD: “Gerald Chipeur, an attorney allied with the U.S.-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), recently filed with the Supreme Court of Canada and said the case will be heard March 24. Chipeur said 11 interveners are supporting Loyola, including his client. . . . Brett Harvey, a lawyer with ADF, said in a press release, ‘All faith-based institutions must be free to speak and act consistently with their faith.’”

Christian Post: “ADF Senior Counsel Brett Harvey added in a statement that ‘the government should not require a Catholic school to tell its students that the Catholic faith is no more valid than a myriad of conflicting faith traditions.’”

EWTN / CNA: “Brett Harvey, senior counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, said the school does not object to teaching students about the diversity of religious faiths and their distinctiveness. However, he continued, ‘the government should not require a Catholic school to tell its students that the Catholic faith is no more valid than a myriad of conflicting faith traditions.’”

WorldNetDaily: “‘This school does not object to educating students about the diversity of faiths and what makes each faith distinctive, but the government should not require a Catholic school to tell its students that the Catholic faith is no more valid than a myriad of conflicting faith traditions,’ said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Brett Harvey. ‘All faith-based institutions must be free to speak and act consistently with their faith.’”

“An Alliance Defending Freedom allied attorney filed a brief Monday with the Supreme Court of Canada in defense of a private Catholic high school being forced to teach a government-mandated ethics and religion course that includes teaching contrary to Catholic belief. In January, the court granted other denominations the right to intervene in the case in defense of the Catholic school.”

Cathryn Creno at The Arizona Republic: “An attorney for the pro-prayer Alliance Defending Freedom in Scottsdale, however, contends that Mesa Public Schools is within its rights to have prayer before — or after the start — of board meetings. Brett Harvey also says his organization is prepared to help the district if it winds up in court over the prayer issue. ‘Opening meetings with prayer is a time-honored tradition,’ Harvey said.”

Arizona Republic: “Brett Harvey, legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which describes itself on its website as a ‘legal ministry that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith’ also spoke. . . . ‘Certainly there are some who dismiss the practice of opening with invocations, but that doesn’t make the practice unconstitutional,’ Harvey told the board.”

The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Brett Harvey regarding the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision Thursday to review a decision by the British Columbia Court of Appeal in Carter v. Attorney General of Canada that fully upheld Canada’s laws against doctor-prescribed death:

Christian Post: “‘Americans deserve to know and speak the truth about their elected officials. The Ohio law unconstitutionally places a muzzle on citizens in complete contrast to the First Amendment’s free speech protections,’ said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Brett Harvey in a statement Friday.”

Bill Mears at CNN: The Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal ministry based in Scottsdale, Arizona, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Greece Town Board, saying the Supreme Court has upheld the practice of government bodies “to acknowledge America’s religious heritage and invoke divine guidance and blessings upon their work.” “A few people should not be able to extinguish the traditions of our nation merely because they heard something they didn’t like,” said Brett Harvey, an attorney for the group. “Because the authors of the Constitution invoked God’s blessing on public proceedings, this tradition shouldn’t suddenly be deemed unconstitutional.”

Denise M. Champagne at the Daily Record (pdf file): At left is Brett Harvey, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, who is representing the Town of Greece, and at right is Heather Weaver, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. They both spoke on the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case Town of Greece v. Galloway, at a public forum co-sponsored by Genesee Valley Chapter of the NYCLU, the Rochester Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society and the Monroe County Bar Association. The forum was held at Nixon Peabody offices in Rochester on Tuesday evening.

Bill Mears at CNN: The Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal ministry based in Scottsdale, Arizona, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Greece Town Board, saying the Supreme Court has upheld the practice of government bodies “to acknowledge America’s religious heritage and invoke divine guidance and blessings upon their work.” “A few people should not be able to extinguish the traditions of our nation merely because they heard something they didn’t like,” said Brett Harvey, an attorney for the group. “Because the authors of the Constitution invoked God’s blessing on public proceedings, this tradition shouldn’t suddenly be deemed unconstitutional.”

Brett Harvey at Alliance Defending Freedom: Hostility wears many masks. It hides behind labels that seemingly promote neutrality and diversity while disguising true intentions. On November 6, the U.S. Supreme Court will be asked to recognize and reject hostility to sincere religious expression. In Town of Greece, NY v. Galloway . . .

Reuters: The battle pits two residents of an upstate New York town, backed by a civil liberties group advocating for the separation of church and state against a town supervisor supported by a prominent, evangelical Christian organization. Both groups – Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Alliance Defending Freedom – have multi-million dollar budgets and litigate on a variety of related issues, often against each other . . . “This is the culmination of a coordinated national campaign to challenge legislative prayer,” Brett Harvey, a lawyer with ADF, said of the Greece case. There have been 19 federal lawsuits challenging legislative prayer since 2005, according to ADF data. Americans United was directly involved in five and has had input into others. ADF has represented government defendants directly in six and was indirectly involved in another six, according to ADF. [more]

NBC: During Tuesday’s discussion, both sides of the argument were represented by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Alliance Defending Freedom. Both were trying to shed light on the case. Brett Harvey, of the Alliance Defending Freedom said, when people pray, they pray to some concept of god that’s specific to them and we believe the constitution protects their right to do that.” Harvey, senior counsel with ADF, works for the firm that will defend the Town of Greece.

Delaware Online: “We are encouraged and believe we have the law on our side,” said Brett Harvey of Alliance Defending Freedom, the national Christian-rights watchdog group representing Greece in its appeal of a lower court ruling that its prayer practices are unconstitutional. “This case has the potential to set precedent that will last for decades. The last time the court heard a similar case was 30 years ago.” . . . Harvey cautioned against unwarranted government intrusion. “No one starts out a prayer saying ‘To whom it may concern,’ ” he said. “Everyone who prays, prays to a God or concept that is meaningful to them. You stifle religious freedom if you have government decide which prayers are acceptable or not. Requiring generic prayer excludes the devout.”

13WHAM: Heather Weaver, of the American Civil Liberties Union, and Brett Harvey, of Alliance Defending Freedom, flew in for the discussion. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the Town of Greece while the ACLU is supporting the plaintiffs.

Rochester Chronicle and Democrat: The Oct. 29 panel discussion will feature attorneys Brett Harvey and Heather Weaver. Harvey is senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christian rights group that is representing the town pro bono.

Rochester City News: The Genesee Valley Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Rochester Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society, and the Monroe County Bar Association will present “Town of Greece v. Galloway: the Future of Legislative Prayer in America,” at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, October 29. The panel discussion will feature attorneys Heather Weaver from the ACLU and Brett Harvey from the Alliance Defending Freedom regarding the local prayer case that will be heard by the US Supreme Court next month. The event is at Nixon Peabody, 1300 Clinton Square.

Brett Harvey at OC Register (login required): For more than 225 years, Congress has opened each working morning with a prayer. Members of all 50 state legislatures start each working day with a prayer. In California, more than 400 towns and cities open their town meetings with a prayer. Why? The answer is found in the reason Benjamin Franklin offered for recommending morning prayers at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 as he reflected on our country’s fight for freedom: “…when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, & they were graciously answered.”

Brett Harvey at Alliance Defending Freedom: I am not Jewish, but my status as a citizen does not change when I see a menorah outside city hall during the season of Hanukah or hear the local Rabbi offer a blessing from the God of Abraham at a public meeting. My status doesn’t change because I am free to appreciate, disagree with, or ignore what I see and hear. Rather than being degraded, I have the privilege of exercising the civic virtue of showing respect and tolerance for the beliefs and values of fellow citizens.

One News Now: Brett Harvey of Alliance Defending Freedom says board members of the Clay County School Board are waiting for a U.S. Supreme Court decision. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Nov. 6 in a case after an atheist sued because she didn’t like the way people were praying to open their public meetings, Harvey tells OneNewsNow. “We feel confident they’re going to support this cherished tradition,” Harvey predicts. “It’s very consistent with prior Supreme Court precedent and our historical practice.”

Christian Post: “Americans today should be as free as the Founders were to pray,” said ADF Senior Counsel David Cortman. “The Founders prayed while drafting our Constitution’s Bill of Rights, and the Supreme Court has ruled that public prayer is part of the ‘history and tradition of this country.’ The city of Chico, therefore, is on extremely firm ground to allow prayer before its public meetings.” . . . Senior Counsel Brett Harvey added, “A few people should not be able to extinguish the traditions of our nation merely because they heard something they didn’t like. Because the authors of the Constitution invoked God’s blessing on public proceedings, this tradition shouldn’t suddenly be considered unconstitutional. It’s perfectly constitutional to allow community members to ask for God’s blessing according to their conscience.” [more]

Ken Klukowski at Breitbart: Now the first briefs have been filed. Tom Hungar of Gibson Dunn is lead counsel in thisAlliance Defending Freedom (ADF) case; his excellent brief is what you would expect from someone as accomplished as Hungar, as he prepares to argue for his 26th time before the Supreme Court. A total of 25 amicus briefs (“friend of the court” briefs) were filed supporting ADF and the town of Greece. Among them is a brief by Indiana Solicitor General Tom Fisher on behalf of 23 states nationwide, a brief by Steffen Johnson representing 34 U.S. Senators, and the brief that I authored on behalf of 85 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives.

PR Newswire: Ken Klukowski, J.D., director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the Family Research Council (FRC), has filed an amicus brief on behalf of 85 Members of Congress in Town of Greece v. Galloway, a religious liberty case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Greg Stohr at Bloomberg Business Week: “People from other faiths did volunteer, which is great,” said one of Greece’s lawyers, Brett Harvey of the Alliance Defending Freedom in Scottsdale, Arizona. “The town has no problem with any of that.”

TimeWV.com: “A few people should not be able to extinguish the traditions of our nation merely because they heard something they didn’t like,” Brett Harvey, senior counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, told USA Today. “Because the authors of the Constitution invoked God’s blessing on public proceedings, this tradition shouldn’t suddenly be deemed unconstitutional.”

Ecumenical News: A few people should not be able to extinguish the traditions of our nation merely because they heard something they didn’t like,” said Brett Harvey, a lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is defending Greece. “Because the authors of the Constitution invoked God’s blessing on public proceedings, this tradition shouldn’t suddenly be deemed unconstitutional.”

Champion Newspapers: In Chino Valley, the fire and school boards and Chino city council have such invocations. Chino Hills dropped them on advice of its attorney and satisfied its faith by conducting meetings under the large motto above the council dais, “In God We Trust.”

Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review (May 21): “No one confuses sessions of Congress with a church service.” You can say that again. Brett Harvey, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom makes this point to me in an interview for National Review Online, about the case of an upstate New York town’s desire to pray before town-council meetings. Yesterday the Supreme Court agreed to hear the town of Greece’s case after a Second Circuit Appeals Court ruling found that because the town has predominantly Christian clergy, it needs to import non-Christians to lead the town council in prayer so non-Christians do not “feel like outsiders.”

Marci Hamilton at Justia.com: They have the Alliance Defense Fund representing them, and an amicus brief has been filed on their behalf by the Foundation for Moral Law. (That foundation is led by Judge Roy Moore, who belligerently violated the Establishment Clause by bringing his own two-ton granite rendition of a version of the Ten Commandments into the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court). Other amici include the Liberty Institute and the National Legal Foundation, which advertises itself as a “Christian public interest law firm”. It is no secret that these groups are aggressively seeking to re-introduce prayer in public schools, a movement that includes many who insist that this is a “Christian country.”

The New American: But Joel Oster of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing the town of Greece in the case, said that the appeals court ruling forces the city to become a prayer monitor in its meetings, and turns the reverent tradition of prayer into a government-supervised affirmative action program. “Since this nation’s founding, public meetings have been opened with prayers offered according to the conscience of the speaker,” noted Oster. “There is no legal reason why a town cannot engage in this practice today with people from within its own community. The district court rightly affirmed the constitutionality of the town’s policy.” He added that secular groups with a grudge against Christianity “cannot be allowed to force local governments to engage in strange hoops and hurdles that effectively eliminate prayers by making them too difficult to take place.”
Oster pointed out that the U.S. Constitution “has never required any local government to engage in such gymnastics to have prayer, as is clearly seen by the prayers of America’s Founding Fathers. Prayer-givers have a right protected by the First Amendment to engage in speech that reflects their own conscience and religion during such prayers. That does not make the prayers an endorsement by the town itself of any particular religion.” ADF attorney Brett Harvey told National Review . . . In taking the case to the Supreme Court, the ADF has been joined by attorney Thomas Hungar, whom Ken Klukowski of the Family Research Council called “one of the most accomplished Supreme Court litigators in the nation. [more]

Brett Harvey at Alliance Defending Freedom: Is the government obligated to control the way people pray in public? The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide this very question. You see, the Town of Greece, NY has been sued because, when they open their town council meetings, they refused to censor the prayers of citizens who volunteered to deliver the opening invocation.

NC Register: “It is perfectly constitutional to allow community members to ask for God’s blessing according to their conscience,” Brett Harvey, senior counsel with the Alliance Defending Freedom, told Catholic News Agency on May 21. “A Supreme Court ruling reaffirming this historic tradition and making clear that prayer-givers are permitted to pray consistent with the dictates of their own conscience would both uphold the original understanding of the Constitution and provide needed clarity to put an end to these attacks on our American heritage.”